Rudimentary Ruminations on Minimalism

It’s not a very happy day when you know you can’t deliberately focus on all the good things that your life has to offer to you and every time you do manage to do that, you end up dizzy and sleepy. But that’s the price one pays for staying awake for no reason at all through most of the night. Well, I guess that’s enough to create a fair picture of what state I am in while writing all of this. Not a very pleasant one trust me. So like most other people I started finding out what else I can occupy my mind with and stumble upon this documentary called Minimalism – A Documentary about the Important things. A nicely put together piece of content, I must say the way it was presented by the two Minimalists, as they call themselves, was awe inspiring and wonderful.

When we look at the society especially our urban culture, we find that most of the things we buy or most of the activities we engage in, are seemingly driven by this desire to fit into the delicately woven social fabric around us. We want to look awesome, glamourous and for this reason, since our aims and achievements don’t quite match up with the expectations, we run after money because it helps fill up this void. And this is what Multinational Behemoths want people to do – keep buying, keep consuming and keep rolling the cogwheel of economic development driven by consumerism.

But how often do we stop and think about all the stuff that one has collected to understand which is the bare essential stuff and which is not?

It is said that consumerism is the stuff which keeps the economic machinery well oiled. But is only economic prosperity the goal of human existence? An average human cannot live beyond 100 years of age and compared to the age of this entire cosmos, in terms of time, that’s an infinitesimally small period of time. Do we really need to be spending this time waiting for the next fashion statement by top brands in our country? Should we not be spending our time gathering qualitative things in life like positivity, personal growth, a sense of achievement, healthy relationships and freedom to travel and experience? Instead, because of the excessive advertising shoved right in our faces by money minting corporations we feel a need to fill our lives with their products when there actually isn’t any.

Now, it doesn’t mean we hardline and say that I won’t buy stuff anymore, fuck the corporations, boycott the goods. Aboslutely not.

Minimalism from what I could connect while watching the documentary seemed like a much more mindful way of living uncluttered lifestyles. A little would probably be something like this

” I have earned enough money to buy myself a new car. Hey, I have enough cash to buy myself a luxury one. But do I really need it? What is my true purpose of buying the car?”

“Thats a nice latest pair of furniture right there. But what purpose would keeping it serve? Does it add qualitative value to my life? Do I need the latest design IKEA sofas, cushions, ultra soft mattresses, dining table and chairs on display here ?”

When such a mindful way of living starts slowly and steadily binding to all the other approaches in life then quite automatically the clutter goes down. And now, instead your uncluttered mind can focus on doing activities which contribute to improving the quality of your life, instead of just material quantity of things around your life.

Owning too much isn’t bad, but another problem that it seems to nurture is the worry that owning too much brings along, because we are too attached and dependent on our possessions. Most of it is pretty much indicative towards the single most reason for rapid health impairment – Stress. And this is where the minimalist wins. Because when he owns less, he has to worry about less and when he has to worry about less, the time spent worrying can be better invested in activities beneficial to the society at large or in at the very least, for his personal growth.

Indeed the more I went through the documentary on Netflix, the more convinced I was of the need for our current generation to embrace such ideals. Because this is the generation which is going to find out solutions for some of the biggest problems mankind has ever faced and it definitely won’t be able to if it is occupied in gathering the best material possession MNCs have to offer.

What do you think about Minimalism? Have any views regarding the good and bad of minimalism? Feel free to comment below!